For almost two decades no federal dollars have been allocated to researching the effects of gun violence. But there are moves afoot to change that.

Calling it a public health emergency, Connecticut’s third district congresswoman Rosa DeLauro said House Democrats want funding to enable the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct research for gun violence prevention.

It would be the first time since the 90’s that Congress has funded such research.

DeLauro said opponents worry the information would be used to take away people’s second amendment rights.

“That is the fear, that it will lead to gun control,” DeLauro said. “And obviously the NRA has had a significant role in helping to perpetrate that.”

DeLauro said they are poised to give the CDC funding in this year’s appropriation bill that could give the agency the ability to study areas like suicide intervention, or the correlation between domestic violence and gun violence.

Dr. Kirsten Bechtel from the pediatric emergency department at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital said that 20 years ago car crashes killed more people in the U.S. than firearms. But in 2014 deaths from firearms outnumbered those from car crashes.

“The fact that deaths from car crashes and firearms have converged is alarming, because nine in ten households in this country have access to a car, but only about one-third of households have access to a firearm,” Bechtel said.

Brent Peterkin from Project Longevity, an initiative that strives to reduce gun violence in Connecticut’s three major cities, experienced gun violence as a 13-year-old.

He said post traumatic stress disorder is one of many issues that needs to be addressed.

“What happens when a young person shows up to school and has been exposed to gun violence,” Peterkin asked. “What traumatic informed care responses, backed by research, are in place to make sure that that child receives necessary care to make sure that they have a productive life?”

DeLauro didn’t give a dollar amount for the research funding. But she said several national groups are asking for about $50-million. DeLauro said Connecticut had the fifth lowest rate of gun deaths in the nation in 2016, according to the Giffords Law Center, with 170 gun related deaths that year.

She was joined by other experts and advocates at police headquarters in New Haven Monday.

Related Content

Almost 25 years to the day after the Brady Bill first mandated background checks for some gun sales, House Democrats and a handful of Republicans just voted to require background checks on all gun sales.

The Democratic-led House Thursday approved another piece of legislation to broaden federal gun-control legislation. The bill gives the FBI more time to do background checks on gun purchasers. It comes a day after the chamber passed a bill extending the checks to private firearms sales.

Both measures face long odds at becoming law.

The latest bill would extend the time sellershave to wait before completing a gun sale. Like Wednesday's measure, it passed largely along party lines — 228 to 198.

In a public hearing for several gun bills that lasted for more than eight hours, the testimonies of concerned mothers, proud gun owners, weary police chiefs, and drained doctors were put forth for the Judiciary Committee's consideration.